Open Stories — Short Fiction by Hank Redding

Stories shared freely, with selected book excerpts.
A public archive of finished literary short fiction.

Reading strictly Westerns? See the literary Western short stories guide.

Choose by pressure

Three clean starting points

Quiet grief Where the River Narrows A restrained piece about grief, endurance, and choosing a direction after the familiar path ends. System pressure Held to Account A novel-length Western about responsibility without mercy and a town whose order works too well. Novella excerpt Car No. 47 Read the opening of a winter railroad survival novella. The full novella is on Amazon in Kindle and paperback.

Collected works · 1982–Present

HR–029 The Shadow on the Ridge 33 min read · Literary fiction

In 1871 Wyoming Territory, a sheriff’s silence leads a town to complete a justice it will later correct but never undo. The Shadow on the Ridge is a restrained Western novella about law carried too efficiently, truth that arrives late, and the cost of waiting when power shifts.

HR–030 Six Rooms 27 min read · Literary fiction

On a bypassed stretch of highway, a woman keeps a small roadside motel open as the world steadily moves past it. Pressured by paperwork, timelines, and quiet incentives to close, she continues not out of defiance but habit, attention, and care. Six Rooms examines what remains when usefulness fades, and how presence itself becomes a form of resistance.

HR–031 Some Things Are Worn 4 min read · Literary fiction

During Frontier Days in 1910 Wyoming, a quiet confrontation over a battered hat draws a line between what is taken and what is earned. Some Things Are Worn is a restrained Western about public pressure, accumulated loss, and the authority that comes from carrying something long enough.

HR–032 Statements Taken at Dusk 14 min read · Literary fiction

Three deputies return. One does not. In a sheriff’s office at dusk, testimony narrows toward a version that can survive the ledger. A procedural Western about contradiction, consequence, and what remains unspoken.

This collection grows as work concludes.
Stories are presented without revision or annotation.